Sharing 17 – The Lay Marist Vocation
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South America Region in the presential meeting of the International Forum on The Lay Marist Vocation
November 2022 – Rome
The third phase of the International Forum on the Lay Marist Vocation consists of the face-to-face meeting that will take place from November 4 to 11 in Rome. The Forum celebrates a beautiful four-year journey (2021-2024) of shared reflection and discernment among laity and brothers in this International Forum process.
Forum topics revolve around the Marist vocation with emphasis on the lay Marist vocation, formation itineraries, accompaniment of vocational processes, attachment to the charism, and possible juridical structures for the Marist laity. These are current and relevant future issues related to the vitality of the charism and our journey of communion as a Global Charismatic Family.
For the Executive Secretary of the South American Region, Leonardo Soares, the “Forum is an important space for dialogue and discernment, to which all the Administrative Units are invited to respond to a series of questions about the lay Marist vocation existing in different parts of the world, connecting people and strengthening networks, such as the Network of the Laity of the South American Region”.
The Forum’s theme is “welcoming, nurturing, living, sharing our vocation”. These are the four characteristic actions of the vocational process, in which the Spirit, each person, and the community interact, dialogue, and walk together in a permanent discovery and construction. In this issue of “Sharing,” the Region has decided to present some of the representatives who will participate in the face-to-face meeting in Rome in November. Each Administrative Unit of the Institute will be present with 3 representatives: 2 lay people and 1 brother.
This month’s issue has been prepared by South America Region
About the South America Region
Internationality is an increasingly reinforced premise in the Marist Institute. To promote the continuity and sustainability of the mission to educate and evangelize, our actions are moving in an increasingly global way. With this bias, the South America Region was founded in 2016, bringing together the 5 Administrative Units that are present in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.
The purpose is to implement common projects and initiatives that strengthen the Marist evangelizing charism, present in all the works that promote life through education, health, social work, and missionary action throughout the continent.
Among the objectives are the identification and development of charismatic leadership and the care of the social, cultural, environmental, pastoral, and economic dimensions, guaranteeing the stability of the mission. This synergistic development of the units also aims to collaborate for the mission in solidarity and co-responsibility, always attending to the signs of the realities of the world to be a transforming presence in all areas of Marist action.
According to the Strategic Planning 2018-2022, one of the focuses of the Region is to enhance the belonging and mobility of Brothers and Laity, developing a corporate culture. In 2023 the Strategic Plan will be updated, but the vocation of the laity remains a priority.
Some representatives who will participate in the meeting
in Rome in November
Province of Brasil Centro-Norte
Cristiane Italmar Pifano de Moura Ferraz – Brazil, Pernambuco
I am Cristiane Ferraz, from ColĂ©gio Marista SĂŁo LuĂs, in Recife. The Forum will be a great moment of learning and growth in my Marist life. It will be a strengthening in faith and on the journey with the Institute, giving continuity in a reasoned and meaningful way to the legacy left by St. Marcellin Champagnat.
Province of Brasil Centro-Sul
Br. Alison Humberto Furlan – Brazil, Paraná
“I am formator of the aspirancy in the city of Itapajara d’Oeste, State of Paraná. I am also the provincial councilor of the Champagnat Movement of the Marist Family (CMMF). Here, in the city where I live, which has about eleven thousand residents, the laity, especially of the CMMF, are very vibrant, and they promote the Marist mission with much commitment and joy, even in places that are not Marist.
And they help a lot in the formation of aspirants who are on their way to becoming Brothers. I use this example to tell you the importance of lay Marists, who besides living better, enhancing their faith and community life, do differently what others do as a routine. I intend to collaborate as much as I can with the spirituality and the living of the Marist charism since the Forum is for the lay vocation and not for the brothers.
João Gabriel Soares Sedrez – Brazil, Paraná
I am 31 years old and I am a young lay Marist. I am a former student of the Marist Province of Brasil Centro-Sul and my formation has always been from the perspective of the Marist Youth Ministry. Today I work as a lay Marist in a group called Marist Youth Laity, made up of small groups of young lay people from all over the Province.
I was very happy to be nominated to participate in the International Forum and I hope to contribute some of the voices of the young people who want to assume their commitment as lay Marists and transform the world like Jesus of Nazareth, with the maternal and affectionate gaze of Mary”.
Josmari Pauzer – Brazil, Paraná
I am a lay Marist of the CMMF and I have been a member of the Holy Family Fraternity in Curitiba for six years. In the fraternities, we share faith and life in a family environment.
We care for mission, spirituality, and shared life as the three dimensions of the Marist charism. Since November 2021 I have been the coordinator of the CMMF in the Marist Province of Brazil Centro Sul.
Knowing the reality of the laity of the South America Region is important to build common paths of our lay Marist vocation, expanding the possibilities of working together in different projects and formation activities, shared life, and mission actions.
Province of Brasil Sul AmazĂ´nia
Eduardo Damiani Pavin – Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul
My name is Eduardo Damiani Pavin, I am 24 years old and I was born in Passo Fundo, the state of Rio Grande do Sul. My relationship with the Marist charism began when I was five years old and I started my life as a student at the Marist College of Conceição. Guided and supported by my parents, I was able to know and experience the integral human and Christian formation, as well as to identify myself with the values proposed by our founder, Marcellin Champagnat.
In the fifth year of high school, I began to participate in Marist Youth Ministry (MYM) with the “Buen Quierer” group, and that strengthened me, even more, to continue to be inspired by the ways of the Marist charism. Later I became an animator of the MYM groups at the local level and then I was assigned as a provincial animator of the MYM for a year.
Then, in 2016, I had the opportunity to represent the Marist youth at the International Marist Youth Meeting in Lyon, France, which provided me with an incredible experience, allowing me to broaden my perspectives on my life project in communion.
The importance of a Network of the Laity of the South American Region is given by the possibility of being able, as groups, to work together in a structure of the laity oriented to our local reality, as well as to exchange experiences, ideas, and proposals that combine our differences, equalities, and particularities, to contribute in different ways to build a harmonious environment, even in the face of the great diversity that is identified along these lines.
My expectations for the Forum meeting in Rome are given by the opportunity and responsibility to represent all the people and ideas of our Marist laity, having as a premise the respect for the differences and thoughts that always enrich our discussions. Moreover, I believe it will be an enlightening and motivating meeting, always blessed by the strength and mysticism of our Founder, Champagnat, in the light of our Good Mother Mary and Jesus Christ.
Br. Narciso Camatti – Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul
I was born in AntĂ´nio Prado, state of Rio Grande do Sul. At the age of 16, I met the Marist Brothers and at 20 I pronounced my first vows. In the Marist mission, I have worked as a teacher, in vocation animation, in Marist reflection and planning teams, as well as in other services. At present, I am an animator of the Marist community of VeranĂłpolis, in the Recanto Marista Medianeira.
I see in the laity of the South American Region a richness for the Institute because of their contribution to the continuity of the mission and the strengthening of the Marist charism. The celebration of the International Forum on the Lay Marist Vocation is for me an opportunity to live intensely the experience of life shared between brothers and laity.
I feel this moment as a grace granted to every Marist of Champagnat.
Renà Giaretta Oleksinski – Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul
I was born in GetĂşlio Vargas, the state of Rio Grande do Sul, where I live. I am a widow, mother of a couple of children, and a granddaughter. My first contact with the Marist charism was in the youth group. I joined the Catholic community of Marcellin Champagnat, founded by Brother Taciano (19/03/1976).
In the Fraternity of Brother Taciano, I am living the third important moment in which I accept to commit myself more to the following of Jesus, living the spirituality of Champagnat, in the realization of the life project of the MMF. The Laity Network of the South American Region is the expression of the path of communion with the Institute that the laity must travel in the future of the Marist charism. And, also, to contribute to being a bold presence in all areas of Marist action, attentive to the signs of the realities of the world, to promote the mission.
Participating in the Forum during the month of November is a joy, and a great blessing in my faith journey and as a Champagnat Lay Marist. I believe that the invitation is to dream with other people from different places, in communion, in dialogue, in listening to the Spirit, and to other Marists. Therefore, to dream together, as Champagnat dreamed with the first brothers, and following his intuition, so that our shared vision of the future may be the beginning of the reality that God wants for us.
Province of Cruz del Sur
Adriano López – Paraguay
I live in Horqueta. We lay people should accompany each other and cultivate our lay Marist vocation and in this way, continue as a global charismatic family, the mission entrusted to us by Saint Marcellin. The Forum is the stage to find, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, lights, forms, and ways to strengthen the lay Marist mission.
Province of Santa Maria de los Andes
Br. Isidro Azpeleta Sebastián – Bolivia
I am currently a Delegate of Marist Life for the Marist Sector of Bolivia, I participate in the formation and spirituality of educators and young people. I have great expectations. It will be a world-class Marist meeting in which we will share the beautiful riches that each one of us brings from our own country.
We will all be enlightened to share in our Marist Provinces the virtues of the Lay Marist Vocation, its identity, and its spirit. We have a beautiful future in the Lay Vocation. The laity makes the charism a reality in the concrete situation of each country, each city, each classroom, in each child and young person.
Jaime Godoy Rivera – Chile
I live in Santiago de Chile, and I am the Evangelization coordinator at the Marist school in Santiago – Instituto Alonso de Ercilla.
Both because of my work in the school and because of my experience as a lay Marist, I live this time of the International Forum of the Lay Marist Vocation with great hope that the steps we are taking can be capitalized in the face-to-face stage and in the work that we can later carry out in each administrative unit, especially in what refers to our identity, to our being Marist and to the discernment that guides our mission.
I feel that the great gift of the Spirit today is the call to experience our Marist vocation in community with open hearts, without borders, as Champagnat once dreamed, and the face-to-face meeting in November will be a powerful sign of this communion and discernment that as a global charismatic family we assume for the revitalization of the charism”.
Sara Sánchez – Peru
I am from Lima, Peru; I am a member of the Cana Community where I share my vocational journey as a lay Marist with other lay men and women and three Marist Brothers who accompany us; I coordinate the Spirituality and Laity Team of the Peru Sector of the Province Santa MarĂa de Los Andes.
I believe that the Laity Network of the Region will allow us to create synergy around various aspects related to lay vocational processes, thus contributing to the charismatic vitality of our Region from the various areas in which we live our lives.
Regarding the Forum, I believe that it will be a time of grace that the Lord gives us to share the richness of expressions of the lay Marist vocation, to continue dreaming together, and to take concrete steps that will allow us to consolidate the advanced path. It is a time that asks us to be open to the Spirit, like Mary.